Quarter Life
by Sqweebs
Summary: James Marchi, a Civil Protection, finds himself hot on the tail of Gordon Freeman, after a call leads him to try and take the scientist down. chasing him through familair parts such as Ravenholm, and Nova Prospekt, this CP wont stop till the job's done.
1. First Encounter

**Ok, so I basically said SCREW it and wrote this. This is an idea for a HL2 Fan Fic that I have been doodling on my math book in class for... 6 months? I just NOW finished polishing up all the detail, from the main ideas, all the way down to the LITTLEST facts. This is the Story of James Marchi, a human that joined up to serve for the Combine, who is thrust into the wildest journey of his life when, one day, he is out working and happens to get a call, requesting back-up for the one, the only! Gordon Freeman! Anyways, this story'll explain itself over time. I was actually thinking of contacting someone who's a professional at making mods and giving him this idea, but I decided that if I do that, I should at LEAST get some fans opinions on the idea. Who knows, maybe this'll become the next **_**Full Life Consequences**_**! (I wish) Enjoy, my newest story, Quarter Life!**

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><p>As James Marchi went down in the elevator towards the mission briefing sector of the Citadel, his information scrolled across his helmet screen, even though he has seen it a million times.<p>

_James Marchi_

_Age: 36_

_Sex: Male_

_Race: Human_

_Health Status: 100%_

_Armor Status: 100%_

_Civil Protection Rank: Private_

_Civil Protection member for: 2 years 3 months and 17 days_

_Civil Protection Member_

_Undercover Rebellion Operations_

_Helicopter Pilot in training_

_Current Weapon: Pulse Rifle_

_Ammunition: 30/120_

_Sidearm: 9mm Pistol_

_Ammunition:18/108_

_Grenades: 3_

_Melee Weapon: Stun Stick_

By the time the Info had finished scanning on his screen, the elevator had reached the floor that the briefing level was on. He stepped out of the elevator to hear orders from the Administrator going through the loud-speakers. He walked down the steel corridor, turned right, and then after walking another 100 yards, turned into the briefing room. As he walked into the room he saw the 3 usual people he ended up seeing when getting a mission. His boss, General Zaroff, stood over the computer typing in coordinates. The head of Briefing, Captain Ten, stood talking to James's best friend and fellow CP, Corporal Preston Gould.

"Ah there you are, James, the General has a new assignment for you." Preston said, walking up to him and shaking his hand. Their uniforms looked like the usual CP uniform, while the Captain and the General's Uniforms were more advanced, and a lot nicer.

"Yes, Marchi, we have a pretty simple day for you." He said, not looking up from his computer. He then brought up a bird's-eye-view of one of the sections of the city, where a train was just pulling into the station and the three men that were on it, two white and one black, were starting to get off. Also oddly enough, a man in a suit was walking in the opposite direction from the train-station, but James never really took any notice to him. "First, you're gonna do a scan of the city around the 18th sector, we have you set up for a couple of block raids here and there too. Then you're gonna do some helicopter training with the captain here. Meet the Captain at Helicopter landing pad 24, the one on top of the Train-station in that area. Afterward you'll just be on guard duty at checkpoint Foxtrot. Get out there. Just take the elevator down to the loading bay. Good luck, soldier."

With that, James was off, going down another elevator and finally reaching the loading bay, where there was a transport ship waiting for him, it's engines roaring and it's hatch open, waiting for his entry. Nearing the ship he saw the six other CP soldiers that were gonna be doing the block raids with him. As he finally sat down and the doors closed, he stared out of the small port hole to see the transport lifting off, and the city below came into view. The whole city was quite large, spanning over 50 miles in every direction, with the Citadel at it's center, it was larger than most Capital Cities were back in the early 2000's, before the portal storms started appearing and the Combine took over after the 7 Hour War. Towards the west of the city was the beaches and also Nova Prospekt, the current Combine Holding Station, or in simple terms, the Combine's "Jail". Then in the North and East were the Forest Lands, the only place where one could really have some nice peace and tranquility, unfortunately the City wouldn't allow citizens outside, and if any of the CP's stepped foot outside the city without the Administrator's permission, they would either be terminated, or have a permanent Off-World assignment, and those are supposedly worse than even being a citizen in the city, so James decided it was best to suck it up and do his duties.

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><p>Finally, the transporter touched down on the road outside of the apartment complex, and the soldiers started pouring inside of the apartment. There was a report that a man and a woman that owned an apartment on the second floor were having a relationship and they had to check it out. The apartment complex was about 100 yards from the section's square where the train-station was. The apartment itself was dingy and boring in taste, but suited the citizens living there. There were about 20 residents living there, about 5 per apartment.<p>

"Okay, soldiers." the Sgt. Said as they started up the right hand staircase "When we get there, if they don't open the door, I'll yell 1,2,3, then Tordon, you kick down the door, and Marchi, you stand guard outside so that no citizens can come in. Everyone else, you'll be going in, this is a shoot to kill mission, got it soldiers?"

"Sir yes sir." they all said through their comns. Finally, they reached the doorway, everyone got into position, and the Sgt. knocked on the door, after a couple of seconds of knocking he yelled "123 Go go go!" as Tordon kicked the door down, giving them immediate entry. James then turned to face a citizen with glasses on, an odd sight, for glasses were hardly worn by citizens anymore. His clothes were the usual blue garments, with a number on the left breast. He looked about 22 in age, he had brown hair and a straight face. The man then got too close to James, and he stuck out his hand, a sign to say "Go away, this is none of your business." He then backed up a bit and turned into the apartment door nearest to the stairs. James then heard some people talking inside the apartment, but it was hard to hear what they were saying over the sound of the T.V. they had on, with the administrator's newest broadcast about a letter from a concerned citizen and all that. Finally the guy came back out of the apartment on the other side of the hall from where James was standing, and went up the stairs, soon followed by 4 more CP's coming up to the second floor and then up to the third. Then over a loudspeaker came the announcer's voice.

"_Uneven count in apartment complex 234, instant termination is required."_ She said as James remembered the complex number to be the one he was in.

'Wait a second. Uneven head count? In this apartment?' James thought I wonder if that one guy was trespassing here.'

"Hey Sgt., can Tordon and I go and check out that uneven count?" James yelled into the apartment.

"Yeah, make it quick though. We've got these two taken care of." the Sgt. said from inside the apartment as Tordon came out.

"Get your Stun Stick out, we're looking for a guy with short brown hair and glasses on. If you see him, start the shocker." James said as he heard running above him. The two then started towards the stairs in the direction they heard the footsteps going. As they climbed the stairs, they saw the man, turned on their shock sticks, and ran after him. James was just an inch from hitting him before a door slammed in front of him.

"Head for the roof!" he heard a voice yell from outside.

"Oh no you don't." James said as he started to kick the door, but the guy who was on the other side must have been holding the door back, because it took him 4 tries before the door gave way. As they stepped into the room, James took out the man who was holding the door, then pulled out his pistol and climbed the stairs. Seeing the citizen running away, he fired multiple shots, before his gun ran out of bullets.

"Damn it. Cmon, I know a quick way to stop him." James said to Tordon, as they ran across the rooftops and broke into one of the buildings through one of the windows, giving them a quick short-cut to get in position behind a door.

"When he comes into the hallway on the other side of this door, I'll kick it down, and we'll rush him." James whispered, as he got ready.

Finally hearing the sound of something breaking on the other side of the door, he kicked it in to see the man running almost right at him. With one swing the man was down.. Some other CP's had broke down the door opposite of them, apparently having the same idea, so they gathered in the one room. It was a nice room with an elevator in the corner, and 3 windows facing the street.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound, and when James turned around, he only saw a foot fly into his face before everything went dark.

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><p><strong>5 Minutes Later<strong>

"James! JAMES!" he heard the Captain yelling through his Comn. His vision was still REALLY blurry, but it was starting to go back to normal. "James pick up the god damn Comn!"

"What is it?" he said, looking around, seeing the other bodies of the CP's that were lying around. The person that had kicked him and the man who they had captured were both gone. His Armor was down to 89% and his health was still at 100%

"Where are you? You gotta get over to the train-station for Helicopter training." the captain said, thoroughly pissed.

"Oh, sorry, I just had a run in with "Her" again." he said referring to the girl who had kicked him.

"Oh, you ran into Alex? She break your arm again?" he said laughing. Alex was the daughter of Eli Vance, a fugitive in the eyes of the CP's, but a leader for the resistance. Alex was known to hang out in the sector he was in. Last time he ran into her, she had thrown him off of an apartment, and if it weren't for the CP Uniform and Armor he had on, he would have been killed during the fall. It still broke his arm and hospitalized him for a month though.

"Ha ha, very funny." he said "No, but I'm still seeing stars, I'll be over at the train-station in a bit. Just hang on." and with that he left the bodies behind, on his way over to the Train-station.

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><p><strong>This ended up WAY better than I had initially thought I would do. Starting this chapter I didn't even THINK of the whole Apartment Block raid, but as I started typing, It came into my head like that. Next chapter will be Helicopter Training, now this Helicopter thing will take up I'm hoping two chapters, and you'll see why, some of you who have played HL2 might already know what I'm planning on doing for the next two chapters. Thanks for reading! Please rate and review, and give me some feed-back on my story! I love to get reviews, good or bad, because it shows what I'm doing good on, and what I need to improve on! Bye-nii!<strong>


	2. Chopperdodontist

"**Two, Sqweebs? Two updates in one day? What is the meaning of this?" you may ask, well I'm having a MEGA UPDATE! I have forced myself to do an update of EVERY SINGLE one of my running stories! Also, one of the reason I like this story so much is the fact that I DON'T have to come up with Japanese names! Just regular English names! Believe me, in my Lucky Star stories, some of those names are really hard to come up with. Some may sound like actual Japanese names, but are actually just gibberish that LOOKS Japanese. Anyways, get ready to read, this is gonna be fun! Also, if you're wondering what the title of this chapter, chopperdodontist, means I added the word Chopper onto the beggining of Endodontist, which is the name for someone who works on Root Canals, which would be a spoof on the title of the Chapter in Half Life 2, Route Kanal.**

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><p>"Took ya long enough Marchi, get your ass in the Helicopter, we're already behind schedule, and we need to train you quickly." Captain Ten said as James approached the helicopter on top of the train-station. "We have a training course set up for you, just some barrels and some boxes, a pretend house here and there, maybe a fake makeshift shelter, all the fun stuff."<p>

James stepped into the front seat of the Helicopter and surveyed his surroundings while the captain sat in the back, where he had the piloting controls. The thing was a remake of the original Russian Ka-27, a helicopter that had almost the exact same features and look as the helicopter, but it was rebuilt with a sleeker look, a more aerodynamic shape, and built with the current Combine Technology. The Hunter-Chopper was the civilian name for the thing. It was built in with a double plasma cannon that fired the same shots as the pulse rifle, but more quickly and with more burst, and could drop deployable bombs, and on the occasion, would fire a guided rocket. However, the rockets were both hard to guide and very few in numbers so they stayed away from using them unless they found themselves in a dire situation.

"Okay, James, start it up." The Captain said as James flipped the switch, turning the thing on. It warmed up for a second before hovering off the ground. "Alright, now start the rotors and take off."

James did as he was told, starting the rotors and pressing the button to start the engine.

"Now then, we already went over basic piloting, so I'll be taking control of the piloting. Today, we're going to go over firing the plasma gun, using the deployable bombs, and maybe a guided rocket here and there. This will test you on your quick reflexes in the middle of battle. It may be a bit of a strain, but I know you, you can do this." The Captain said as they were flying to a part of the outer city. "You see down there, that one closed in area with the barrels and the boxes all stacked up? That's where we're practicing today."

As they arrived, Captain Ten got into position for James to start firing. It was a long dipped in area, a part of the old canals that were hardly used anymore. A perfect place for a training ground for helicopters and rough terrain specialists.

"Okay James, while I'm driving through this obstacle course I'm going to be yelling out what objects I want you to hit. We'll be driving a bit fast, but it shouldn't be too difficult." He said as he started up.

"Hit those barrels over there." James did as he was told firing the plasma gun on the barrels. "Now those boxes. Good. Now hit those explosive barrels!" The commands came out one by one, James using the plasma gun was easy.

"Now drop a bomb into that makeshift home over there once we move over it." They moved on top of the house and he dropped a bomb into the house. After a few seconds, the house blew up in a shower of wood and metal.

The Course lasted a bit, drop a bomb here, hit those boxes, and hit those barrels. All a bit repetitive, but needed skill to be able to time it right, or else James would miss something that he was supposed to hit and thus be near useless in an actual fire fight.

"Now go drop the bombs in a row again, James." The captain said as James did as he told, dropping a bomb every 2 seconds in a row. "Alright, now as we get up to that building, shoot as many rockets into it as you possibly can. Take it down!"

"But, sir, that building might be full of civilians, they'll be killed." James said as they were quickly approaching the building.

"That building is empty, we made sure of it. Now shoot down that building or you'll fail this test and have to start over again tomorrow." The captain yelled at James. Even though the Captain had said that, something was telling James not to shoot, he knew something was wrong.

"SHOOT IT NOW!" The captain yelled as James acted on impulse, firing all the rockets there were..

He used the Rocket tracking system to make the rockets aim directly for the bottom of the building, where the supports for the building were.

As they hit, James heard a crumpling sound as the rockets knocked the supports and the building started to fall down to the earth.

Then a noise that would never leave James' memory came out in an ear splitting cry. The sounds of screams, both male and female, came from the falling building, right before it hit the ground with a large thud, silencing all of the noise.

"You said it was empty! There were innocent civilians in that building!" James yelled as he looked back at Captain Ten, who was looking at the wreckage without even a bit of sympathy or distress in his eyes. They had just killed more than a dozen lives and he didn't even feel bad about doing it.

"It's too late now, they were just civilians anyways, there's thousands other in City 17. Now let's start back to the train-station, you're set up for guard duty at Checkpoint Foxtrot." He said before a different noise rang through James' ears, the Citadel was going on full alert, the pieces of the large structure started moving in and up through, almost like it was transforming and the deafening sound of what sounded like a gong rang through the city.

"That's not good, we had better get going ASAP. We had better not take the city route, might have a risk of being shot down. This'll probably take longer though" The captain said as they started moving towards the train-station

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><p><strong>Fifteen Minutes Later<strong>

As the Hunter-Chopper moved through the outskirts towards the train-station in Sector 18, a distress signal came up on the radio. The Captain picked it up, and James thought it was only just a rebel attack on a Checkpoint or something like that. Little did he know, it was what would soon cause the end of the Combine rule, and the beginning of his story.

"This is Hunter-Chopper 645, what do you need?" The Captain said into the mic.

"We need backup Stat!" A voice screamed from the radio.

"Yes, what's the issue? Where are you guys?" He said with urgency in his voice.

"I don't know anymore, we just took out this small rebel hideout and this guy just wiped out my entire squad! We can hardly make him flinch! He's got one of those Orange Hazard suits, and it must be protecting him, we can't kill this guy no matter what. We're in the 17th sector, if you're nearby, PLEASE HURRY!"

"We're nearby, don't worry, we'll be there in about 5 to 10 minutes."

"Okay, we'll try to hold out here as long as possible, just so long as... OH SHIT!" The voice yelled before the transmission cut, and only static was left.

"Are you there? Come in. Are you still there?" the Captain yelled into the mic before throwing it onto the floor. "Damn it! We're turning around! We're looking for a guy dressed in an orange suit. Highly dangerous, get that plasma cannon and those deployable bombs ready. It's time for your first mission."

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><p><strong>Back At the Citadel<strong>

"Sir, General Zaroff, sir!" Private First Class Gould yelled running into the General's Office.

"Yes, Gould, what is it?" The General said a bit surprised, first he gets a message from Dr. Breen, and now PFC Gould came running into his office, something was up

"Captain Ten just sent us a report saying that there is a high level threat that they want to go after that's in their area, but they need your permission first, sir!" He said, again surprising the General

"Did they give any specifics about the man? What he looked like or anything?" The General asked, hoping that the answer wouldn't be what he knew it would be.

"Yes sir, he was wearing one of the HEV Suits, the ones that were used in the Black Mesa Facility."

"God DAMN!" He yelled "That's Gordon Freeman! Get back to the radio control room and send an alert to those two that the man that they're going after is HIGHLY DANGEROUS!"

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><p><strong>Back In the Helicopter<strong>

"Ok... yes... ok... that's fine, we'll be careful... Captain Ten out." The Captain said into the receiver "Well, James, apparently we're going after the one and only Gordon Freeman, and he's highly dangerous, so I'd get ready."

As they flew over to where the distress signal came from, they saw a mess of dead bodies, both rebel and Civil Protection. The place was completely dead, no man in sight that was moving.

"Guess he already went on, lets keep looking for him." James said as the Captain started it up again

After a while of driving and searching, they stopped on a bridge, tired and worn out. They were taking a moment to stretch a little when James noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

"Sir, I see a guy in an orange suit coming this way."He yelled as they both got into the chopper, started it up and went down into sight of the man, who luckily didn't have an RPG meaning he was defenseless against a Helicopter. As the man made a bolt for the side, James charged up the Plasma cannon and fired, some shots hitting him, some missing. It stopped and he had to charge up again. Then he fired, taking out almost everything but the man he was aiming for as he made a wild dash for the door on the other side of the canal they were in. James charged it up once more and fired just as the man got inside the door and shut it behind him.

"Damn it!" James yelled "I almost had him!"

"He didn't seem to have any sort of anti aircraft weaponry, so I think that chasing after him is a good idea." The captain said before they heard another door click open and the man came bolting out.

"There he is!" James yelled as he fired again onto the man who made a wild dash to the door nearby in the canal, just making it in time.

"He can't get far in there, it's just sewers." The Captain said as they went above the building and out of the canal. They flew to a new area where the canal was open and it would be easy to spot him. Suddenly they heard the sound of a cannon and something flying right towards the area where they were.

"Oh shit! They're shelling this area! We gotta move!" The Captain yelled as he brought the Heli around just as a shell hit the base below them. Then three more, soon enough the head crabs started to exit their shells, and caused hell to erupt.

About five minutes after the first shelling the helicopter came back into the area only to just miss the person they were looking for.

"There!" James yelled out "By the gate at the other side of the canal. He's got an airboat now!"

And it was true, he had grabbed an airboat, and was trying to escape. While not the sleekest looking vehicle, the airboat model was fast and efficient.

"Okay James, let's go get this asshole!" Captain Ten said as he started up the rotors and they flew off.

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><p><strong>Sorry to cut it short but I had always had it planned to cut it halfway between the two Chapters in the actual Half Life 2 game, but I didn't know that the ONLY time you actually see the Helicopter in Route Canal was when I said about it, until I played through it again looking for ideas. Next chapter will be MUCH more in depth and will have MUCH more action too.<strong>

**A funny thing that happened halfway through writing this, I was watching American Ninja Warrior, a TV show about American guys with good flexibility and all that, and there was a video of one guy getting a tattoo. At first I was thinking "Why would they show this guy getting a Tattoo instead of just showing him training or whatever" THEN I saw what he was getting a tattoo OF. He was getting the Lamda symbol tattooed onto his back! A Half Life fan who's also a Ninja! I was in SHOCK! Anyways, prepare for the next Quarter Life sometime in the future. I WAS thinking of changing the title because Quarter Life was SORT OF in another story's title, but I decided that it would be too much confusion for everybody. See ya next chapter**


	3. Chopper Hunter

**Ello, how are you, my name is Sqweebs and I will be your server today. Today for our list of specials we have the newest dish on the menu, the Quarter Life Lobster with a hint of garlic. Comes with some Mashed potatoes, and or a Side Salad. Lol Anyways, This chapter should be MUCH MUCH more in depth and have more action than the last one. The Route Kanal level had WAY less Chopper Scenes than I thought it did originally, which is odd, considering the fact that I know the set up of the entire HL2 Game from beginning to end like the back of my hand, but I had planned originally to have it in two parts, and two parts it shall be! Or... has been... or is? Dang it, just read the freaking story.**

"Where did he go?" James asked as the chopper passed a barn that was on the edge of the cliff, most likely a place that was once used for boats, but now looked abandoned. As they neared it, a box fell into the water below, and James figured that a gear must have snapped, considering the place looked like a headcrab canister had hit it by the hole in the roof.

"Should we maybe check the place for him?" James asked as they passed by it. Neither of them noticing the air boat hidden in the shadows.

"Nah, if he's not in there we could lose his trail, and if he is in there, at least we're ahead of him." Captain Ten said as they rode on forward.

The sun was starting to go down now. They had started chasing him almost two hours ago, and now it looked like they finally had him in their grasp. The waterways in the area were long and would take hours for them to search everywhere. Luckily, they had hundreds of CP's out looking for the Scientist. It would only be a matter of time until they finally had him.

"You ever hear about this guy?" The Captain asked, flying off towards a base where they could refuel and get some repairs done.

"Of course, everyone has." James said, turning and looking into the sunset

It was true, the Black Mesa incident hit world news and everyone knew about it. The Aliens that started showing up out of nowhere in the facility, and the Marine's that had to go in to "Dispose" of the problem, which meant killing everything. Soon after the Marines' unsuccessful attempt, the HECU were called in to deal with the situation. After even they failed, they were forced to Nuke the entire base, which didn't end as planned. Soon after the incident, the portals started showing up around the world, and everyone was either forced to fight the aliens, or be killed. Those who were still alive after the days of the relentless Portal Storms were forced to fight again once the Combine started to show up in their own portals. Soon the Seven Hour War started, and the Human Race officially surrendered, coincidentally at the hands of Dr. Wallace Breen, the man who almost everyone considers responsible for the mess in the first place. Very few workers survived the Black Mesa incident in itself, and most of them were killed during the Portal Storms or the Seven Hour War, but after Gordon Freeman had taken care of the Threat that was causing the Aliens to appear in Black Mesa, he disappeared without a trace. After that, something sent more Portal Storms to Earth, but no one was able to stop it, because the only way to get to the Alien planet was through the Black Mesa Facility, and that had already been nuked.

James and the Captain finally managed to reach the nearest base, a little place a bit further up the Waterway where they used to store containers for ships. The two of them landed on the helipad in the back of the base.

"I need to get a refuel and maybe even a bit of a repair." Captain Ten said as he and James both stepped out of the Hunter Chopper, and a CP Repairman quickly went over to their chopper with some fuel and some tools to repair it the best he could.

"So, what do you think we should do after we catch this guy?" James asked, as they both stared out a window looking out at the field of boxes and other things inside the small base.

"I don't know. I know we'll get a pretty big promotion if we catch this guy. You'll probably end up going to a Sargent, and I might get some good ratings and even get a promotion to Major." Captain Ten said.

"Heh, Sargent Marchi. Sounds good." James said chuckling a bit.

"So, you ever hear about the Shepard incident?" The Captain asked, looking over to James.

"You mean Corporal Shepard? The Marine?" James asked the Captain.

"Exactly, he helped out during the Black Mesa incident, but then disappeared out of no where after defeating a threat. Many thought that he died along with the base after it was blown up." he said explaining what had happened. "Out of no where, he appeared in a base over on the edge of City 17, which the Combine were raiding at the time he escaped."

James had never heard this part of the story. He knew that Shepard had stopped a force from the other creatures that started appearing in the facility, but he didn't know that he had shown up again.

"Soon he managed to take a Combine teleport to the old Antlion Reproduction Facility under the Citadel and let out thousands of Antlions, much to Dr. Breen's dismay. He, another soldier, and myself went down to find out what was going on, and right before our eyes, he disappeared, into thin air." the Captain said, finishing his story. It was short, but to the point.

"I'd never heard that he came back. So then this is just like what happened with him." James said

"Exactly, they disappeared from the Black Mesa Facility and show up years later from out of no where." The captain said, thinking a bit. "That's not normal, they have to be connected in some way. One man disappearing and then reappearing. That's a bit strange, but it can happen. TWO men, that's not normal."

Suddenly, James noticed something moving on the water, out of the corner of his eye. He saw the air boat they had been chasing coming right for the base, then the gates leading to a waterway started closing off and the air boat never made it in time. The gates had closed, and the boat started towards the docks of the base.

"Look, I think he's going to try and manually open the gate." James said, pointing to the air boat.

"I think so too, let's get in the Helicopter." the Captain said, as they rushed out of the room they were in and to the Helipad, the sound of sirens going off around them.

"Just in time, I got her fueled and did a bit of repair to her." The repairman said as James and the Captain rushed into the Helicopter.

"Good, now we gotta go take out the guy trying to get in the base." Captain Ten said as he took off quickly and brought the chopper to the main loading bays. Gordon had just exited the inner part of the building holding a 457. Magnum.

James fired on him as soon as the plasma cannon charged up enough. He soon ran for the nearest cover, which was a container, so the Captain moved around to get a better shot at him. Soon he went off running again, then ran into a Civil Protection who was near him. He shot the CP with the Magnum and ran past him, towards the main warehouse at the end of the Loading Bay. The chopper made another pass at him, but he managed to make it into the Warehouse before they could take him down.

"Damn it." James said.

"I think he's gonna get to those windows." The Captain said and after a little while, the man showed up soon enough behind the windows like he said.

He struggled a bit trying to break some boxes that were blocking the door, and James took the opportunity to fire in through the windows at him, making him duck for cover. Then while the plasma cannon had to charge again, he destroyed the rest of the boxes and got through, and about twenty seconds later, appeared in the door way running out into the next Loading Bay. James fired on him again, but he just managed to get behind a box. Then he went running for the main Guard Post that was next to the water gate. James then took advantage of the lack of cover in that area, and fired on him, managing to hit him a few times, but nothing enough to kill him. He managed to get up the ladder and into the guard tower.

The tower was a small building with some plasma guns on the sides of it looking out some windows that were on the sides. As the Helicopter made a pass around the tower, the gate opened, meaning he had managed to open the gate manually.

James then fired in on the little windows that were on the side of the tower, breaking them, but a few shots looked to have hit the guy, making him duck to cover himself. When he popped up, James saw what he was planning on doing, and by that time it was too late.

Gordon had grabbed one of the plasma guns that looked out of the windows and fired on the helicopter, making something on one of the sides blow up. Not enough to take them down, but enough to do some damage. James fired again at the tower, but Gordon had ducked, and his shots didn't do anything. Then he popped back up and fired the plasma gun again.

"Go to that side, and fire on him from there." James said, pointing to the other side of the tower.

The Captain did that and James fired, taking out more windows while doing so, but the scientist just got onto the plasma gun on that side of the tower, and fired on the helicopter again, making more parts of the Chopper explode and fall off.

"We gotta get away, or he'll take us down." James said "I doubt he'll wait for us to come back. He'll probably be defenseless when we come back."

Captain Ten turned the Chopper around and landed it in a clearing not too far away so that they could take a bit of a break.

"God damn it, what is this guy? A machine?" James said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Worse, actually." the Captain said "He's a machine that thinks, and has emotions. Now let's get going back."

They took off quickly, not wanting to lose sight of the Scientist, and when they got back to the base, they saw him driving off in his air boat, trying to get away. He turned into another Canal, but the Chopper trailed soon behind him.

"I'm gonna speed up, you drop some bombs on him every two seconds." The Captain yelled to James, who complied. He dropped a bomb every two seconds, which went off four seconds later, and a few manged to knock the air boat around. One even exploded right near him, causing some damage to him.

He turned left and went up a small ramp which went above the wall in his way, and made a U-turn to go further, all the while having James drop bombs on him. James then alternated between shooting the plasma cannon and dropping the bombs to try and stun him a bit, but he still managed to make his way forward. They hit a canal that led straight through until it hit a tunnel that the Chopper couldn't go through, and would be forced to go over. James kept up the shooting, and the dropping of the bombs, but no matter how much he hit the Scientist, the air boat never stopped, and the guy never died. When he finally got to the tunnel, the Helicopter was forced to go over, much to the Captain's dismay, but he knew that it would lead to an exit at the other side.

As they flew over, James noticed how red the sky started to look. The sun was slowly starting to go down, and the sky was starting to turn red. It would soon start getting dark, and then they wouldn't be able to continue chasing after Gordon. They had to either take him down, or leave him alone and let the other CP's deal with him.

He appeared on the other side of the tunnel as they started flying towards him, dropping bombs as they went. Then, turned around to continue the chase. He took a shortcut over some downed trees in an area where the land was a bit lower, and managed to take them off guard as he got a bit of a head start. Soon enough, the chopper managed to catch up and they were back on his tail.

He turned right, dodging around a downed boat, and started in some more tubes, but these ones had openings in them, giving James a chance to be able to drop some bombs in the area where it was open.

He wasn't great at it, considering he had just been taught how to use the bombs, but he managed to get some in where he wanted to.

The tubes opened out to an opening where more tubes were, but they were too low underground to be able to go underneath, forcing the air boat to have to go on top of them, and for a moment, it looked like it was going to slide off and give them a chance to open fire directly onto him, but he managed to make it into the tube at the far end, and he escaped again, making them have to go over, and wait for him at the other side.

He exited the tube, and the chase continued. He dodged through the underside of a bridge and turned right. He then went up a ramp and made a jump to the other side where a warehouse was with boxes and supplies. No matter how much firepower he put on the boat, it didn't stop the thing from continuing. It made the jump into the warehouse and James dropped bombs through the windows on the roof as much as he could, but he knew it wasn't doing any damage. The Air Boat shot out from a space underneath the dock, and flew out into the water.

Suddenly, the sound of a large cannon getting shot off and something flying towards them could be heard. James instantly recognized the sound as it got closer to them.

"Head crab canisters!" He shouted as one of the canisters hit a hill near them. Then the second one hit further up the way, hitting the edge of a smoke pipe for a factory that was on the edge of the water, making it tip and start to fall.

"Shit!" The Captain yelled as he pulled backwards on the controls, just stopping from being hit by a falling pillar. They lost sight of their target for a second before seeing him go in through a tunnel with an Armored Vehicle shooting rockets at the Air boat from the bridge above the tunnel. They went above the hill but couldn't find an exit to the tunnels.

"Damn it!" James yelled, looking around for him everywhere.

"He's gotta come out somewhere." Captain Ten said, reduced to flying around in circles at this point. "We'll find him."

The Helicopter was pretty banged up from when they faced off at the Guard Tower back at the loading bays. They had never gotten a chance to go get repairs after that battle, so the Helicopter's total Health was a little less than half. They could take some blasts, but not too many. The fuel was about the same thing. They only had about a third of their fuel left in the tank, and if they didn't get it filled soon, the Helicopter would die on them, and they would be stuck. Also not to mention the fact that it was starting to get darker already, and that would screw them over too.

Suddenly, James spotted another opening, where some tunnels lead out of. It was hard to see because of a bridge that was over it, but he could make out the outline of the tunnel easily.

"Down there! That tunnel right there." James said as the Captain moved down to get a better look.

Sure enough there came the Scientist with the Air Boat, moving inside the tunnel dodging boxes and gates trying to get through. What they didn't notice was the Gun now mounted on the boats side. As soon as he got close enough to the Helicopter, he fired directly on it, making something fall off.

"Shit! He's got a weapon!" James shouted "Move we can't survive with him firing at us like that!"

"Yeah, we need to find an outpost, someplace we can get this thing fixed up." The Captain said as they flew away "I think I know a place nearby too."

**15 Minutes Later**

"Okay, all the waterways will eventually lead to this area anyways." The Captain said, looking at a map inside the base. "Unless he's really going out to the Ocean, then he'll probably end up here pretty soon."

"So as soon as they have the Helicopter fixed up we'll be able to finish him off?" James asked.

"Yup, they should have it done by now." Captain Ten said as they both walked out onto the platform where the helicopter was being repaired on.

Thanks to the new Combine technology, Nanobites now repaired any metal almost within a minute after starting. The helicopter looked just like new when they saw it.

"It's all ready for you two." The Combine repair man said as they hopped in and prepped for takeoff.

Suddenly, sirens came from the base, and they looked over onto the water to see none other than Gordon Freeman himself riding up in the air boat. They started the Chopper and were headed straight towards him.

Gordon opened fire as soon as he was in range and took some metal pieces off the sides of the Chopper. James fired back and didn't stop firing until they had to turn around, which was when he started dropping bombs. A bomb every two seconds.

It continued like this for a while. Finally the damage that the Helicopter had been dealt was at around a quarter, meaning they had to go into drastic measures.

"Okay when we turn back around, drop three bombs every seconds, this way he won't be able to escape being blown up" The Captain said as they turned around. James did that, and it did manage to do a lot of damage to the Air Boat, but it didn't seem to want to die.

They continued with their battle, James dropping all the bombs he could, and firing the Plasma Cannon, while Gordon fired the gun mounted on his Air Boat. The battle had lasted ten minutes already, and they both knew it would be one of the two of them that would go first.

"He's not gonna make it past this one, James! Let's do this!" Captain Ten yelled noticing how weak Gordon looked. After the long battle, Gordon looked like he wasn't going to last much longer, and fired one last time on the Helicopter.

James heard a snap, which he hadn't heard before when they were being fired on, and the plane instantly lost control. In back, the Captain fought to regain control of the Helicopter, but it was no use, parts of it were coming off as they barreled towards the ground. The Helicopter suddenly snapped into three pieces, James being in the first, and the Captain being in the second. It went down and hit the ground with enough force to knock the Air Boat to the side. The Chopper went down and was clearly destroyed. James blacked out after seeing the scientist riding towards the base.

**10 Minutes Later**

"Shit..." James groaned as he picked himself up from inside the cockpit of the destroyed Helicopter. It hurt just to breath, let alone move, but he forced himself to get over to check on the Captain, who was in the second part of the Cockpit that had been separated. Every step felt like fire, but he finally managed to make it over, and saw a sight that nearly made him puke.

Inside his seat was the Captain, with a large shard of metal sticking out from his stomach. Blood was everywhere, and James knew that the wound was fatal. It was too far in to pull out, but it hadn't killed the Captain yet.

"Ugh... James..." He started, reaching up, as if to grab James. "James... I ain't gonna make it..."

"Don't say that Captain!" James said, grabbing the Captains hand. "Don't die on me yet."

"James..." The Captain said, starting to fade away.

"Yes, Captain?" James asked, now starting to cry.

"Get.. Get this guy good." He said, and died there, holding James's hand. The life was no longer in his eyes and James knew he was dead

"Captain Ten! NO!" James screamed at the sky. "Damn it!"

He stayed there for what seemed like hours, when it had only been a few minutes. He looked back at the base, and saw it was almost completely deserted, meaning that the guy had cleared them out too.

His entire body ached and he managed to take out his radio and call back to the Citadel.

"Captain Ten! James! Where are you guys? We lost track of you and we couldn't get through to you!" PFC Gould pretty much yelled into the Microphone.

"We got downed... and Captain Ten... he's dead... I can't believe what just happened, man." James said, starting to freak out a little.

"Oh shit... James did you see where he went?" Gould said from the Radio.

"Uhh, he went towards the base, but I doubt he could have gotten very far from there... there wasn't anyplace he could have gone from that way." James said, trying to find out where the Air Boat had gone.

"What's going on?" Came a voice from the Radio. It seemed distant, so it was someone else talking a bit away from the microphone. "Captain Ten was killed in a Helicopter crash. James managed to survive, but he lost Freeman." Came PFC Gould's voice from the radio, he sounded like he was facing away, probably to the other person who was talking.

James continued looking around, trying to see something, anything that could have helped Freeman get through. It took a little bit but he then noticed one of the bay doors on the Dam that he was near was open. Some downed logs made a sort of ramp up to it, and when James hobbles over to it to inspect, he noticed some scratch marks in the wood.

"I think I see where he went" James said into the radio.

**There it is! This took me a day longer to write than I had originally expected, because I got lazy... yeah I know. Anyways, I had expected this to be a bit longer, but really, how much detail can you put into a helicopter moving back and forth and back and forth across a battlefield with a man in an Air boat shooting at it. Get my point? Also, I had expected there to be more of an entertaining chase... but I realized just how boring the chase scene with the Helicopter and the Air Boat really is. Well anyways, for my Lucky Star fans, the rest of my 4 day extravaganza starts up again tomorrow, and for my Half Life 2 fans, see ya next time I update! **


	4. Black Mesa East

**Sqweebs here! Back for more action into Quarter Life, which I haven't updated in MONTHS. Sorry about that, if you haven't yet realized, occasionally... I get lazy... for extremely long periods of time. Well, yes since so far this story is a hit, I decided, why not get back into it. Now, THIS is where it all starts to go down! Now then, I noticed I never actually explained how I came up with this whole story, and it might give you a little chuckle, but Algebra... Algebra is the reason I came up with this story. XD I had a paper bag over my Algebra book and when I was bored in Algebra class I would draw on it. Then I drew a map of what I assumed to be the land where HL2 takes place in (If you look at the ACTUAL maps in HL2, I realized I was DEAD WRONG) then I came up with this idea of a guy following Gordon, and causing this whole madness as well. Then after going back to the Citadel, ends up going into a different adventure after the Citadel blows up the first time, and then he needs to GET to the Citadel again... I won't spoil the rest. Yeah, I also took ideas from other mods and kind of added it into this story. In the Nova Prospekt level I'm going to have there be this big Riot in the prison after James hitched a ride with multiple Resistance members who planned to free the people inside Nova Prospekt, and it causes this huge Prison wide war, this way it actually adds enemies to the level instead of just having this boring level in Nova Prospekt with nothing important going on. That whole idea was from a mod I played; Half-Life 2: Riot Act, where you play as a prisoner in Nova Prospekt who is freed by a Rioter, and you cause absolute hell. The final battle with a Strider while on a lift going across the underside of a Railroad Bridge is pretty epic too. Also, the entire idea of "Role Reversal" where you would play as a Combine instead of a member of the Resistance came from a mod I played called Human Error (I forget the full title). Well, I've spoken enough now, so time to start this adventure again.**

_Health Critical_

_Seek Medical Attention Immediately_

James heard the ever familiar voice come up from his suit as he made his way over the large hill that was next to the dam that Gordon had gone through, knowing he had to follow him, or else he'd lose him. As he finally made it over, he looked and saw a run down factory that was next to the water, that had the Air-Boat parked outside of it.

"I have a visual on the target vehicle... but the target isn't inside, he must have gone inside the building that he parked next to." James said into his Communicator.

"James, change of mission." The general said from the other side of the Comm's unit. "We need you to infiltrate that base, we have intel that suggests that that's a hidden Rebel base, any chance you can ditch the suit and fool your way inside?"

"Sure thing General, I need some health anyways." James said as he limped his way through the shallow water over to the Factory. As he made his way around the factory, he noticed why the place looked deserted, there was a secret entrance to a hidden base well hidden behind the building in front. Only a person who walked around the property would have actually noticed the entrance, it was even hidden from the sky.

"Ok, I'm making my way into the base now, I'll give a report on what's inside once I manage to get inside and see something of it." he said before pushing a few buttons on the arm of the suit. As soon as he finished typing in the coding, the suit started to take itself off, pieces going back into each other, before finally forming a perfect square that could fit into his pocket. He was now fully exposed to the air, making it the first time he had to have taken off his suit outside in almost a year. He was wearing civilian clothes like any other regular citizen wore, that way he looked exactly like any regular person, and no one would suspect him of being a spy. He breathed in the fresh salt water smell that reminded him of his vacations with his family to the beach before the Black Mesa incident and the Seven Years War, and finally made his way inside.

He limped into a medium sized scanning room, where cameras came out, looked directly at him, and a voice came up on the loudspeaker.

"Another human?" a Male voice said as some lasers started to scan the room. "You're the second person to come in here in the past hour. Guess we're getting a lot of attention today."

'More than you'll ever know bud.' James thought to himself before the scanning finished and the door opened. The guy took one look at him, and instantly recognized that he was injured. Even though James didn't have any blood on his clothes, he was definitely hurting, and in need of medical attention.

"Oh, sheesh buddy, you don't look so good, I'll help you down to the Medical Bay." the guy said, grabbing James, and helping him limp to an elevator in the next room. They went down the elevator as they passed a room that looked something like a break room, and a kitchen before passing what looked like a laboratory, but James didn't notice that, what he noticed was the obvious Orange HEV Suit just walk through a doorway, and shut the door behind him. Finally, the elevator reached the Medical Bay, and James was put down on a cot, and the guy left to go inform the doctors about the new patient.

James laid there silently, waiting for the doctor to come out, when he looked around at the medical bay around him. There were a bunch of people sitting around the room, all in cots that weren't covered at all and in plain sight of the entire room. Then one of the women who were in the Medical bay made her way over to him, an obvious wound in her side that she was trying to hide.

"Hi!" She said enthusiastically sitting down on the cot across from him "I'm Jenna, what's your name?"

"Uh, Kyle." James said, remembering that he wasn't allowed to say his real name when undercover.

"Oh, that's a nice name!" Jenna said with a smile. "I'm in here most of the time helping the doctors, but I got a bit injured yesterday and now I'm in here too."

"Oh that's a shame" James said cracking a smile as well "I just came here from the city, but I got in a bit of an accident on the way."

She had a sweet voice, one that could sooth even the most enraged person. She reminded James of the one girl that he had a crush on In College, before the Combine invaded, but even more beautiful. He was happy to talk to the girl, and they talked for what seemed like hours until the doctor finally arrived to check up on James, in which she gladly helped out with.

Finally, after about a half hour, James got up and stretched, feeling a bit of a sting from the wound, but nothing to bad. He had gotten multiple scratches, and some pretty deep, but nothing had managed to go inside of his body, and no shrapnel was stuck inside of the skin, so all he had were some scraped and bruises.

As he was about to leave to go somewhere else to make the call back to the Citadel, Jenna called to him.

"Kyle, where are you going?" she asked

"Oh, I'm just going to have a bit of a stretch, I'll be right back." he responded, as he turned and walked through the door.

He searched for a little while, but he finally came across a room that he could get through to the Citadel that didn't have anybody inside.

"Hey there Preston, I'm back, I've infiltrated the base, it's coordinates are what I'm sending you now." James said into the radio as he sent the coordinates via a small gadget that could send text through to a computer of choice.

"About how many people do you think are in there?" Preston asked from the other side of the Radio

"I don't know, maybe about fifty, it's a small base, but it has a large laboratory, I've also managed to confirm that Gordon Freeman is here, but I don't know if he still is at the moment." James said before he thought he heard someone outside the door. "Ok I have to go back to the medical bay before they get suspicious, I'll send you any more information later."

He poked his head out of the door, but he could only see a man in a suit walking down the hallway, and they didn't seem to have noticed him, giving him a sigh of relief.

With that he started the walk back to the medical bay. He was thinking a bit on what he would do once he got out of the base, he knew that he had to follow Gordon, but if he lost his trail, he wouldn't have anywhere to go. He was thinking about this when he remembered something. He was already breaking the Combine Code. He was starting to have feelings for a woman, which the Combine had not only suppressed in their Army, but even in the humans themselves, so that they would stop the human race from breeding.

Finally, James made it back to the Medical Bay, and went back over to Jenna, and whispered to her so no one else could hear him.

"Look, Jenna, you need to hide, the Combine are going to invade this place." James said into her ear.

"But how do you know that?" Jenna asked

"I... intercepted a transmission to the Combine bases around the area of this place's location. I came to warn everybody." he said, making up a story on the spot

"When will they get here?" she asked, before a large explosion from the surface rocked the base back and forth.

"Looks like right now. Come on, we need to hide you." James said as he pushed her over to the corner of the room where a large medical cabinet stood. When he opened it, it could just fit her size, and even had a hole in the back in case she needed to escape quickly.

"Wait, Kyle..." Jenna said as he got ready to leave. "What if I never see you again?"

"Don't worry, you will."he said before closing the door and running out.

The Combine had already made their way through to the entrance of the base but encountered heavy resistance. When James got to the front gate, they were in a heated battle.

"Here, take this." one of the Resistance members said to James, handing him an SMG.

"Sorry about this." James said, before putting the SMG to the head of the guy who just gave it to him and pulling the trigger, before turning it on the other two in the room.

"Ah there you are James." One of the Combine said walking up to James.

"Ah, Sargent Carter, it's been a while." James said, approaching Carter.

Sargent Anthony Carter was an old friend of James's since before the Combine invaded. They were old drinking buddies on Friday's after a good game of Football, but it was different now. Anthony had joined with the Combine even before James, and even managed to persuade James to join. They had a long history together.

"So where should we head?" Anthony asked

"Probably the fourth level, I saw a lab down there, and I think I saw Freeman there." James said as they went over to the elevator

They made their way down the elevator, the other levels were basically destroyed, either having overturned tables and other objects, or having plenty of dead bodies. Finally they made it to the fourth floor, where one of the scientists was over a computer talking to someone on the monitor. A Vortigant stood nearby, and as soon as he heard the elevator coming down, started to fire at them with the energy he used as a weapon. James and the rest of the crew opened fire, and quickly took out the Vorigaunt leaving only the scientist there in the room.

"Alyx!" Alyx, take Gordon! Get out of there! Don't go through Ravenholm!" he yelled into the monitor before it lost connection. "Alyx! Alyx! Dang it!"

Before he could escape, we grabbed him and had him imprisoned. Soon enough orders were given for James and another soldier to search the other rooms for Gordon and Alyx. James and the soldier went down a hallway, and before they could react, a door flew open, knocking the other soldier out cold, but just missing James. James, being in Civilian clothes, wasn't attacked and instead she started to talk with him hurriedly.

"What's going on? Have you seen my father? Eli Vance, he should be in the lab right near here." She practically yelled.

"Yeah, he's there, the Combine haven't caught him yet though." James said back, lying, knowing she would fall for it, and hopefully would end up getting captured.

"Thanks." she yelled back, starting to run down to the lab door.

Suddenly, as James started to open the door, he heard two things. One was gunfire being exchanged back at the labs, and the other was a large crashing sound on the other side of the door. As soon as James opened the door, he was knocked over by a large mechanical robot that was ramming straight through everything. James watched as the robot shot down the hallway, crashed straight through the doors, grabbed the girl and jumped away before the Combine could capture the girl.

James then continued through the doorway to find a large pile of rubble with a large hole right in the center of it where he assumed the robot got through. He followed the hallway to another hallway, but both of the sides of the hallway were covered in rubble, and completely inaccessible. There was only one hallway left that led to a dented gate that led down a dark hallway.

"Hey, Anthony, I have a lead on where Freeman might have escaped to, should I persue, or should I stay back?" James asked into his Comms

"Follow him, if we lose him, we'll be in ruin. We're working on trying to capture the Vance girl, but we got the scientist, and found another nearby, getting ready for extraction. Also, we received word from base, stay in civilian clothing until instructed otherwise, going around dressed as a Combine alone could be dangerous," Anthony said back

"Got that, over and out." James said checking off. 'I wonder if Jenna is okay.' James thought looking back at the door.

He could abandon the mission, go back and help Jenna, then they could live together happily, or he could continue on the mission, and possibly become one of the most famous Soldiers alive for capturing the Freeman. Looking back and forth between the door and the gate, he needed to make a decision that could change his life forever.

With that, he turned, and ducked under the gate on his way down the dark hallway to follow the Freeman.

**I'm a sad sad man. I not only added a new character who I had planned for MUCH later in the story, but I also made ANOTHER new character, jeez. I had actually planned another scene in the Medical Bay, but I cut it. Now here's where it gets interesting, not only does James get to Ravenholm, but he also starts to come across the wrath and evil that the Combine have shown, which will lead to important points in the story. Also, prepare for Father Grigori, he'll make appearances next chapter, and I MIGHT have Ravenholm burn to the ground... I'm evil, anyways, see ya next chapter! A very short A/N today... I must be tired.**


	5. We Don't Escape Ravenholm

**Hello to all my Half Life 2 fans out there! It's been a while! (Maybe because I got lazy, that might be the reason….) So for the last two days, today, and tomorrow, it's my 4 Day Anniversary Extravaganza! That basically means it's the celebration of 1 my joining of FF.N 2 a birthday of a friend of mine on this site 3 the writing of my first story and 4 the publishing of my first chapter. I did this before (it might've even been the last chapter I uploaded because I just got that lazy T-T) so I won't go into details, but I do have a genuine reason for not uploading this chapter…. That's because I have had ABSOLUTELY NO idea what to do for Ravenholm! I kept wondering "How the HECK am I gonna do this chapter without basically doing the EXACT same thing as the game. So I thought…. And thought… and thought…. For a year…. And really it shouldn't have taken this long, but I finally came up with an idea that actually was pretty good. Also I should mention last chapter I randomly switched to first person POV…. Sorry… I have another FanFic that's written in 1****st**** Person and I might have been typing that up at the time. If I randomly do that, ignore it, I must have missed it when going back over the story. Thanks for reading and enjoy!**

James ran through the tunnel leading towards Ravenholm, on the tail of Gordon Freeman. He had heard that Ravenholm was once a big mining town, and even a highly populated one at that, but something happened that caused it to be abandoned. None of the Combine records said what however. As he went further in, he found a ladder leading up what used to be an elevator shaft, and as he started to climb the ladder, he started to smell something strange. Figuring it was old mines, he dismissed the smell, and kept moving.

The first thing he noticed when he finally got outside of the tunnel was the darkness. Despite the tunnel coming out in what seemed to be a park area in the middle of the town, the whole park was pitch black, with the only light coming from a shack at the other end of the park, near a large oak tree, and a lamp on a wall nearby. The second thing he noticed was the smell. It couldn't have been the smell of the mines or of any work. It was the putrid smell of death. He wished he had permission to put on his combine uniform, because at least the mask would cover the smell.

He took a few steps before kicking a dented sign on the ground which read "Ravenholm", which just gave him the creeps. He started to walk towards the shack at the end of the opening, before noticing something hanging from a rope on a tree.

"Pants?" James asked himself, as he walked closer. As he approached, though, he realized it wasn't just a pair of pants. It was a pair of pants with legs still in them, only severed at the waist from whoever originally owned them.

That's when he heard a strange noise coming from the shack. It sounded like a gas leak, but he couldn't be sure. He slowly walked towards the shack, being careful not to alert anybody. He walked inside, his pistol drawn, but what he saw nearly made him vomit. Saw blades littered the walls and floor, and there were multiple explosive barrels around the room, and one of them was on fire.

James didn't have time to react, he quickly dashed out of the room as it exploded behind him, the wood splintering all around him as he quickly lost consciousness.

As James regained consciousness, he realized he wasn't laying in the park area anymore, but instead, he was in a long room with a few tables with dead bodies on top of them, with him lying on one as well. Then he noticed the man sitting across the room from him. He was a short man with a round gut, dressed in grey and wearing a cross as a necklace. Next to him he had a double barrel Winchester shotgun. When James sat up, the man noticed he was awake.

"Welcome back to the world of the living my brother. God has chosen you as worthy of the life you contain, and has spared you from the cold grip of death!" the man said as he started to get up from the chair he was sitting in. "I must apologize, for you had fallen into one of my many traps, for, you see, I had not expected yet another of my brethren to walk into these gates of hell. I assume you were following in the path of the man before you. Hmm?"

"Uh… yeah, the… guy in an orange suit. I was following him, when the building exploded… Wait how long was I out for?" James asked in a panic

"You have been visiting the land of the dead for almost an hour now." The man responded. "Our brother has already escaped the town, but he has only just left."

"Do you know where he got to?" James asked.

"He has followed the path of wisdom, and has escaped into the deepest pit of hell, in order to escape back into the land of the living" the man answered "Oh, where are my manners in front of yet another brother, I am Father Gregori, I am the Shepard of the flock that roams this plain."

"James… I'm James…" he said, shaking the hand of the father "What do you mean by flock?"

"Why, the flock of the damned who walk the earth even though they have gone onto the land of the dead in spirit. Those who have plagued and continue to walk this earth around this unholy town." Father Gregori responded

"Oh I see, headcrabs." James said, figuring out what Gregori meant. 'So the reason this place is abandoned is because we shot some headcrab canisters down here, but why would it be able to infect the whole town? Did we fire that many?' James thought. "Uh… Father, is it possible for you to take me to the same place that the man before me went?"

"Impossible, as God has slowly begun to envelope this unholy town in a baptism of fire, and the entrance into the pits of hell have been blocked for those of the land of the living." Gregori said

James looked out a window that was in the room, and in the distance he could see an orange glow behind the buildings outside. The town was already burning to the ground, and the back half was completely burnt. Many of the buildings in the town being made of wood, it fueled the fire, and made it easier for it to spread.

"I have to follow that man! I need to get out of this town, and I need to get to the same place that man is going. Is there any other way?" James pleaded, knowing he would lose Freeman if he didn't keep on his trail

"I do know of another way, it is the way that leads us towards the heavens, only to come back down to the land of the living, but it leads out of this land of the dead." Father Gregori responded "We must go through the hills towards a greener pasture, and then dangle on the edge of life, only then will we reach the brothers and sisters on the other side. It will be a much more difficult path than the one into hell, but it is now the only path God has left for us."

"Well, then, perfect, as long as it will lead me out of here." James said as he got up. He was lucky not to get injured in the explosion, and he only had a splinter or two, which the father pulled out and patched up for him.

As they left the room, they came out into a road made of stone, with tall buildings around him, which led down towards the hills. The fire continued to burn on the buildings to the left side of him. As he looked up into the sky, it was just starting to become light out, the mere peak of dawn.

"We must hurry, or our route will quickly be engulfed by hell." Gregori said "the building at the end of this street is where we must go. Be careful, as the flock is nearing."

As soon as he said that, James noticed two different hoards of zombies coming through two alleys. James fired his pistol at them, but they slowly got closer, he couldn't fend them off for long.

"Get behind me brother, I will spring the trap I have set to assist us on our path." Father Gregori said. James did as the father said, and Gregori pulled a switch, only for multiple explosive barrels to fall in and around the hoard. James took the opportunity and shot a barrel, causing a chain reaction, and every barrel exploded as a result. There was, luckily, just enough space in-between the fires to walk without getting caught on fire.

"Well done my brother. I ask forgiveness, as I do not have a more suitable weapon to give to you at this time, but I had given my only spare to the brother before you." The Father said, feeling bad

"Don't worry about it, if we find another, I'll use that one." James said, waving it off.

After entering the building they needed to, they went up to the fourth floor, and went down a hallway. Then they turned a corner and walked down another hallway, James looked out one of the windows, and realized that the hallway was actually suspended and that they were going over the fire that was burning in the town below. The fire was catching multiple buildings on fire, and he could hear plenty of zombies crying out because of the fires in their intelligible language that they speak.

Suddenly, an explosion came from behind them, and as they turned around, a large piece of the building started to come off in the fire. Suddenly, another explosion caused a part of the suspended hallway to fall down to the fire below. James and Father Gregori ran down the hallway and made it into the other building just as the hallway collapsed behind them, falling down to the road below.

"God truly favors us this day." Gregori said, wiping his brow "come, my brother, we must keep moving."

They walked another short distance and started down a flight of stairs. As they got to the second floor, however, the fire was covering the stairs that led to the ground floor, forcing them to go into the second floor, unfortunately, the second flood didn't have an exit, and they were trapped. The fire was quickly spreading towards them, and they were now stuck in a corner with only two windows.

"Father, what should we do?" James asked, trying to figure out what to do.

"We must break the windows, it is our only way to salvation." Father Gregori said, starting to try to pry the window open. James did the same on his wall. Gregori was able to slide his window open without any problem and hopped down to the street below, which wasn't caught in the blaze yet. James wasn't as lucky, and his window wouldn't open.

"Well God dang it…." James said as he looked behind him to the fire. Then he backed up, took a running start and leaped through the window. The glass shattering as he forced his body through the window, he fell down onto the street, landing hard onto his back.

"My brother! Quickly, you must rise! We have no time to spare, and the fires of hell are quickly approaching." The Father said as he ran over to James, and helping him get up. They were already on the edge of town, and the hills begun right in front of them. Father Gregori helped James walk over the hills and they soon arrived at a wide open plain with some more hills at the other end. James could see multiple different hoards of zombies in the field though. After walking a bit, they came to a garage built by the side of a hill out of makeshift parts, most likely built by the Father himself.

"Quickly, inside." Gregori said as he lifted the garage door and brought them inside. Inside the garage was a car, which looked like it actually worked, despite its windshield being broken and it missing all of its doors. There was also a workbench set up next to a hole in the wall, which James guessed was supposed to be a sort of window. "Now, brother, I must prepare our vehicle for our journey, please guard me with your life, as I have yours." Gregori said, handing his shotgun to James.

When James looked out the hole, the zombies had already gotten closer to the garage, some of them were already at the garage and banging on the wall, trying to get in. James took the shotgun and fired both of the rounds in the barrel, taking out two of the closest zombies, then reloading the Gregori finally managed to get the car started, the zombies had already begun to surround the garage, and were all banging on the walls to get in.

"I must break through the door, brother, as lifting it would prove to be too dangerous." Gregori said as they both got in the car "Keep your weapon at the ready in case we're in danger of being overrun by the flock."

With that, Gregori put the car in drive and rammed through the door, causing a large mass of zombies to fly backwards and the car to go over them. The rest of the zombies started to walk towards them, but they weren't nearly fast enough. James thought it was over, before suddenly he heard a screeching cry, and a zombie came flying towards the car at a speed James had never seen before. This was Jame's first time seeing a fast zombie, and it easily was keeping up speed with the car. James then took aim with the shotgun, and fired it, taking out the fast zombie. Soon, though, more cries ran together and James found himself firing and reloading at multiple fast zombies as they sped along the field. When they finally reached the other end of the field, James got out of the car, but Gregori did not.

"I'm sorry, my brother, but this is where we must part ways, may god be with you on your journey and may he bring you great happiness in your life." Gregori said "You may keep, the gun, I have no use for it anymore, and I shall let God lead me from now on."

"Thank you Father. Stay safe." James said, waving to Gregori as he started to turn the car around.

"Safety is not the way of life I have chosen. The life of a shepherd is never safe, as long as there are wolves. Goodbye brother!" he said as he sped off "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me down to lie. In pastures green, he leadeth me…" the man was yelling as he drove away. The only thing James could hear after he kept driving was the sound of Father Gregori's laughter.

As James made his way through the hills, he soon came to a cliff with a very narrow edge between a wall of rock and the drop-off. Now he understood why not very many people came this way. The cliff was long and dangerous. If James wasn't careful, he could easily fall to his death. He slowly took the cliff step by step, making sure to keep his footing, and making sure not to fall. The walk felt like quite a long distance, and to James, it felt like a total nightmare. After about 2 minutes of walking, James finally could see the end of the cliff, and could see where there was more walking space. As soon as he took another step, however, the ground underneath his foot gave out, and James started to fall down. Luckily he stuck his hand out and grabbed the ledge, or else he would have fallen nearly 30 feet down into a rocky beach.

As he managed to get to the normal ground again, he sat down on the grass and just took a breath of fresh air for a moment. For a brief moment, he just thought about how his life had gone from simply doing his every-day work, to following one of the biggest criminals in City 17. Any normal person would crack under pressure, but he was determined to stop the man who had killed his friend and commander.

James then stood up and kept walking. After about 5 minutes he spotted a base down below him that used to be a pier, that appeared to be for large cargo, as its dock was high up, and it had a magnet crane. James assumed that Freeman must have gone to that base, as he could see come rebels walking along the docks, shooting at multiple antlion's on the beach. With that, James started his descent down towards the base.

**I had planned that much more differently (and with a lot more zombies) than it had turned out… but honestly I'm quite pleased with it. I made sure this time to look over and check to make sure that the POV STAYED 3****rd**** person, and to what I noticed, it did. Anyways, I didn't quite know how to end this chapter for a long time. I mean, if the fire started where I would assume it would, at the graveyard where Gordon Freeman escapes through, then the only path out of the town would be blocked by the blazing fire that was engulfing the whole town, so I needed another way to have James follow freeman (and I did a chapter reference…. Sigh….) and I thought up "Why not another path that would normally be too dangerous. So I came up with the long, wide open field, and the cliff. The cliff even made sense too, considering the fact that Ravenholm came out to the ocean. Anyways, I plan to continue updating, and the next chapter will take place during the time Gordon is driving towards Nova Prospekt, and It's NOT gonna take you guys along the whole path, because BELIEVE ME, that would be the most boring thing to write. Thanks for reading!**


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